


Absurd Behavior

by im_at_my_limit



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, F/F, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, IM SORRY I DONT KNOW WHAT HAPPENED, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Pining, so i wrote chapter three and uh, takes place between ep 16 &17
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-14
Updated: 2020-09-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 04:41:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26467360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/im_at_my_limit/pseuds/im_at_my_limit
Summary: Amity tries to reason her way through a crush she already knows will be the death of her.  It goes about as well as she expects.
Relationships: Amity Blight/Luz Noceda
Comments: 39
Kudos: 303





	1. The One Where Amity Flunks Out of School

**Author's Note:**

> These two have been giving me brain worms for the past 7 months. Guess I should finally write about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeah <3

Whether she was willing to accept it or not, Amity figured she should at least acknowledge that things were changing in the exact way she’d promised herself they wouldn’t. She couldn’t pinpoint exactly when that change had really started, but she could pinpoint exactly why. The catalyst sat mere inches away from her at their shared desk, dutifully scribbling notes on a crumpled sheet of paper. 

All of this was, as things so often were nowadays, Luz’s fault. 

Amity caught herself staring at her classmate before anyone else noticed. She quickly turned to face her notes- or rather, her lack thereof. Focus was not coming easily to her today. Luz seemed more distracting and obnoxious than usual, somehow. But wait, no, that couldn’t be right. Because Luz was the one paying attention to the teacher’s lecture, and Amity was the one… staring at her. Again. Damn it. 

She steered her gaze back towards the almost-empty page in front of her. More forcefully than this time, like that would keep her mind from wandering. It didn’t. Amity wondered if a part of this might be her fault, too. But it couldn’t be, could it? It was Luz who had decided to waltz into another dimension and change everything, not her. 

Maybe Amity had let herself be included in the ‘everything’ too easily. 

The change wasn’t actually proving to be as horrible as she’d built it up to be, anyways. Luz was her friend now. The first real friend she’d had in a while, which was nice. Willow was something like that. And Amity didn’t feel as… hollow as she had before, when she had blindly drifted through day after repetitive day. She felt kind of warm. Maybe it was comfort? Or optimism? Or confidence? After all, she’d nearly been confident enough to-

Amity’s mind went blank. Any thoughts of notes were driven out. She’d been trying to avoid thinking about Grom. It added a million more variables to the change she was already struggling to understand. Plus, it made her really  _ really  _ aware that Luz was sitting right next to her. And that she could probably reach out and grab her hand, or lean into her side, or run her fingers through her hair or-

_ Or,  _ Amity stopped herself,  _ I could stop being weird and start taking notes before I fail out of school _ . Getting sidetracked during class was proving to be one of the less-nice side effects of all the change. Sure, it made class less boring, but she didn’t like feeling out of control. Her mostly blank paper bored into her eyes from its spot on the desk, mocking her. 

Amity knew she liked Luz. She wasn’t an idiot. She’d tried to do something about it, but-

And before she knew it, her mind had circled its way back to Grom again. Great. It had only been a few days, but Amity was already getting sick of the events of that night replaying in her head.

At least, that’s what she told herself. 

The memories carried with them a sort of timid exhilaration. She remembered being scared out of her mind. Not just because she was facing the actual living embodiment of fear, but because Luz was, too. That’s what she was afraid of, losing her to a fear that was never hers to overcome. 

But overcome it they had. Together. Amity could  _ definitely  _ remember doing  _ that _ . Her brain was all but forcing her to think about it, which she was trying really hard to pretend was just annoying and not even a little bit exciting. She remembered being so happy that it didn’t feel real. Nothing felt real, not even the happiness she felt upon recalling it. Was that bad? That being so happy was outlandish enough to feel fake? Or was it just weird?

Well, of course it was weird. This was all so incredibly weird. Amity could feel herself blushing as she drifted back to reality. Reality was unfortunately dull in comparison. The paper had not moved. Neither had the pencil she’d pressed to it. The teacher’s boring drabble and the scratch of chalk still sounded from the front of the room. The board was covered in writing, none of which she could even begin to comprehend, too behind for any hope of catching up. Amity clenched her jaw in frustration. She used to be good at taking notes, right? She used to color-code them by class and subject material. She’d had binders full of them. Now, she could barely even scribble two bullet points before- 

She felt a tap on her shoulder, interrupting her train of thought. Maybe that was for the better. She turned her head to find Luz’s worried eyes locked onto her own. Nevermind. 

(Amity wasn’t sure why she was surprised, since Luz was the only other person at their table. She was apparently losing the ability to think straight now, too.)

“Hey, are you okay? You look really mad at that piece of paper.” Luz leaned closer to whisper to her without anyone else hearing. If Amity’s train of thought was an actual train, it would’ve veered off course and crashed sideways into the ground. Luz’s eyes were really pretty up close. It was hard for Amity not to notice after she’d stared into them while banishing a giant monster to the nether realm. Of course, she’d noticed before then too, but something about the intensity of a shared near-death experience left them with an even greater impact on her mind. Well,  _ another  _ shared near-death experience. Her time spent with Luz bore no shortage of those. It was more or less worth it, though. 

“Um, Amity?” Luz waved her hand in front of Amity’s face. Amity blinked a couple times in response. Oh, right, talking. She could do that. 

Probably.

“Uhh… yeah. I’m okay.” 

“Are you sure? You seem kinda stressed.” 

“I-it’s fine.” Amity tore her eyes away and cast them downwards toward the desk. “Just, y’know, school stuff.”

“Oh.” Luz followed her gaze towards the paper. “Oh! If you need help with notes, I could give you mine after class.”

“Wh-”

Luz suddenly gasped and grabbed onto Amity’s arm. “Do you want to study together?” she asked in the loudest, most excited whisper Amity had ever heard. “It would be so much fun! You even have that cute little room in the library!” 

All of Amity’s senses zeroed in on Luz’s hands around her wrist, close enough that she could’ve shifted a little and woven their fingers together. If she was still rolling with the train metaphor, the wreckage had just caught fire. Amity wouldn’t have been surprised if her face had as well, considering how hot it felt. 

She didn’t need to look in order to feel the eyes of the entire classroom burning against the back of her neck. The teacher had probably noticed their conversation (if you could call it that, it was mostly stuttering on Amity’s end) by now, too. The only thing keeping him from calling them out was Amity’s top-student privilege. But that would only work for so long, especially now, with how much she was struggling to maintain that title. She needed to put a stop to this before yet another aspect of her life got out of hand. She sighed. 

“Studying isn’t supposed to be fun, Luz.” Gently pulling her arm away, she steeled herself and spoke as calmly as possible, “And thanks for the offer, but I don’t need any help. I’ll be okay.”

“Aww, please?” Luz stared up at her with pleading eyes. Eyes that were still  _ really  _ nice to look at for absolutely  _ no  _ good reason. It simply was not fair. Amity couldn’t bring herself to respond. 

“Look,” Luz continued, “I know you’ve got your whole ‘asking for help is a sign of weakness’ thing, but you know I’d never judge you, right?”

Amity really wanted to know that. She stayed silent. 

For a second, concern flashed over Luz’s features. But it was gone as quickly as it had appeared, replaced with an airy smile. She kept talking like nothing had happened.

“And spending time with you would be the fun part.” 

And just like that, Amity was back to stuttering. 

“Oh, well- I, um-” She had apparently been louder that she’d meant to, because the teacher paused his lesson for a fraction of a second to give her a pointed glare over his shoulder. She toned her voice back town to a whisper.

“W-we can talk about it after school, okay?”

Luz smiled-- a real smile this time-- and went back to her notes.

Amity tried to do the same, she really did, but somehow by the time class ended, her mind had wandered to the ends of the Isles and back, and she still hadn’t written a single other word. 

She told herself it was Luz’s fault. 


	2. The One Where Amity Experiences Cardiac Arrest

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2!! Now with more dialogue! (Fair warning: I am not great at dialogue)

Amity tried to remember if her life had really been this awful before. Maybe it was her own fault for trying to cling to one last shred of normalcy, but this was kind of unbearable. She focused intently on opening her locker so that she wouldn't have to pay attention to whatever Boscha was saying. Something about the Grudgby season next week, probably. She really didn’t care. Talking to, or well, more like listening to Boscha felt  _ normal,  _ though, so Amity still put up with her gossip between classes. Even if it was annoying and neither of them actually liked each other anymore. 

“-and they think she might be blind in that eye now, which is weird, because I told her to dodge. We still won though.” 

“Wow that’s… nice.”

“Ugh, you’re not even listening.” Boscha rolled her eyes and sneered. “I don’t know why I even talk to you anymore.” 

Amity didn’t know why either. She took another textbook from her locker. 

“You’ve been so weird lately.” Boscha leaned into the wall. “It’s because of  _ her _ , isn’t it?” 

“Wh-What? No! That’s not- ” 

“You don’t even know who I’m talking about.”

Amity swallowed, embarrassed. She glanced at her classmate. Boscha raised one hand and pointed over Amity’s shoulder at something behind her. She turned. Luz was enthusiastically waving to her from the other end of the hall. It was cute, in an odd way. But she supposed that’s just how Luz was in general. Amity smiled a little despite herself and raised her own hand in a tiny wave back. 

“It’s crazy that you’re friends with a human now.” Boscha spoke sharply enough to direct all of Amity’s attention back towards her. She spat the word  _ human  _ like it was dirty and out of place. Amity would’ve been more annoyed if she hadn’t used to say it in the exact same way. 

“People are gonna start saying things if you keep hanging out with her.” Boscha inspected her nails, trying her best to appear nonchalant. 

Amity narrowed her eyes. She took a step backwards. “Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind.” 

The nonchalant act immediately failed. Boscha dropped her hands to her sides and balled them into fists. “Would you stop being so difficult? I’m just letting you know that we can’t be friends anymore if you keep… being like this.”

Part of Amity wanted to ask ‘being like what?’, but she already had sort of an idea. Asking would only prove that she was insecure. Which she totally was, but she’d always been pretty good at hiding that, so why stop now? 

And she was so completely  _ done  _ with this. 

Amity gave Boscha a half-lidded glare from the corner of her eye. “I’d hardly call us friends, to be honest.”

Boscha glared right back. Amity barely saw it, though. She was already walking away. 

She shouldn’t have been surprised. All of their conversations had ended the same way lately. One of these days, Boscha might actually get the message. 

But it was better not to dwell. Amity had other things to deal with. Namely, the overexcited human limping over to- wait, limping?

“Luz!” Amity sped up to meet her. “Are you okay? What happened?” Her voice came out more panicked than she’d meant it. 

“Hm? What do you mean?”

“You’re limping.” Now that she looked closer, Luz was also covered in tiny scrapes and a few bandages. 

“Oh, right.” Luz paused for a second to look down at her leg, like she was just remembering it hurt. She shrugged. “Uh, y’know, healing class.”

“That looks like the opposite of healing.”

“Ha, you should’ve seen me  _ before _ they magicked my bones back together.”

Okay, that was worrying. “Magic can’t heal bones, Luz.”

“It can’t?” Horror slowly dawned on her face. “Then what did they do to me?”

“Um, probably nothing bad.” Amity tried to convince herself just as much as she was trying to convince Luz. “Teachers aren’t allowed to intentionally cause bodily harm for the purpose of lessons anymore. And you feel fine, right?” 

“Oh yeah, I’m all good!” Swaying a bit on her feet, Luz made a pointing motion with both of her hands that Amity didn’t understand. “Ten outta ten! Never been-” She took a step forward and immediately stumbled, bracing herself against the wall. “On second thought, could you maybe… “

Luz reached out with her other arm. 

Amity started shifting her books to one arm so she could help Luz up. “Here, let me-”

“Great, thanks.” Without warning, Luz swung her arm over Amity’s shoulders, leaning against her a little to help herself stand. 

Oh. 

There appeared to have been a slight misunderstanding. 

But this was still fine! It was great, in fact! Amity could do this. There wasn’t any reason to overthink-

Her eyes drifted to the side against her will and yeah, okay, so Luz was actually  _ very  _ close right now and Amity may have just experienced something akin to a heart attack, but it was still  _ tolerable _ . She could handle this! (Provided the heart palpitations didn’t kill her.) 

Tentatively, she reached her hand across her friend’s ( _ friend _ , she aggressively reminded herself) back to help stabilize her. 

“So,” Luz asked, unaware, “where’s your next class?”

A sort of strangled noise in the back of her throat was the most eloquent response Amity could come up with on such short notice. Luz seemed to understand somehow. She kept talking without missing a beat.

“I figured I could walk with you to make up for helping me not fall on my face.” She gave a tiny laugh as she said it, because apparently she was actively  _ trying _ to kill Amity now. 

“O-okay.” Her voice had sounded so panicked a moment ago, and now it took almost everything out of her to say a single word at a volume barely above a whisper. She hated this. 

***

The walk to class was… one of the more interesting ones. And that was saying something, for Hexside. Both of them managed to stay standing, at least. Amity actually had more trouble with that despite being uninjured. It was just that her gaze seemed to have a mind of its own, insistent on wandering over to marvel at the girl clutched to her side. And every time she remembered how close they were, she felt a little weak in the knees. 

Wow, this was completely embarrassing, wasn’t it? Far more so than Amity was used to. Over the years, she’d grown averse to any and all emotion. She knew she  _ felt  _ it, but it never got in the way, not for most of her life. As such, she’d never considered herself the gushy, romantic type before. Then again, she’d never danced with a girl on a scenic cliff under the stars before, had she? And she’d never met anyone quite like Luz before, either.

She sighed. That was the exact brand of sappiness she would’ve hated herself for, only a few weeks ago. 

“Hey, Amity.” Luz had stopped walking. Amity turned her head up in the direction of Luz’s voice, surprised enough at her name to forget that would make them close enough to-

“Yes! Correct! I-I’m Amity!” Maybe if she spoke loud enough, she’d stop thinking. “That’s me! Amity.” 

It did not work. There was a beat of silence in which Luz gave a confused smile and Amity thought about nothing except how much she wanted to kiss her. And how embarrassing it was that she was thinking about that right now. And that it was really warm in here all of the sudden and-

“I think that’s your class.” Luz pointed to the door in front of them. 

So it was. 

“...” 

“...” 

“... Um-”

An earsplitting screech rang through the building before Amity could finish speaking. 

“Ah, dang it!” Luz quickly detached herself from Amity’s shoulder. She only faltered a little bit before standing upright and starting to run down the hall. Throwing her hand up in a hurried wave goodbye, she called over her shoulder before disappearing among the crowd of students. “Thanks a bunch, Amity! I’ll make it up to you!”

Amity didn’t have the courage to tell her she already had.

She stood still for a moment. Eyes wide, face probably still tinged pink. This one was going to take a while to process. Looked as if she was in for another class period of accomplishing absolutely nothing. 

She didn’t exactly mind. 


	3. The One Where Amity Decides Not to Walk Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So you may have noticed that the tags changed like a lot since last chapter and that one is entirely on me for not planning out my story well enough and accidentally changing the entire thing halfway through. Sorry if you were just here for some mindless fluff :/ Hope you enjoy regardless! 
> 
> Also! This story has 100 kudos now! Which is really cool, thank you so much for reading/enjoying it so far! <3

“Don’t worry, she’ll come.”

Edric and Emira shared a look over Amity’s head. 

“I dunno, Mittens.”

She hated when they did that. She shot back with a stubborn look of her own. 

“Fine,” Emira sighed, “but don’t say we didn’t warn you.”

***

Her siblings turned out to be right. Amity didn’t know what she’d expected. Tutoring had run late, just like it always did. Ed and Em had already walked home without her, like they always did. And the sun was just starting to lower in the sky, elongating the shadows of the few students still ambling through the courtyard. A scene she was met with every Friday as she walked out of school. It was all the same.

So why had she expected it to be different this time?

Amity could have just walked home, like she always did. But here she was sitting on the steps in front of school, staring at a lone text message on a mostly white screen.

_ School’s over. Could you come pick me up like you said? _

Sent twenty-four minutes ago. There was no reply. There would never be a reply. She had been met with a curt “sure” when she’d asked this morning, but she should’ve known it didn’t really mean anything. 

She clicked the off button and shoved the phone in her bag. It was getting dark. She should start walking home. She should’ve already started walking home. More and more students left with each passing minute, their shadows blending with those of the forest and fading away. 

At least Luz was here, though. Because of course she was. She’d come out of nowhere and plopped down on the steps next to Amity about ten minutes ago. When Amity had asked why she was at school so late, she’d gotten a tired, mumbled account of some newly discovered demon hidden in the depths of the building as a response. The story didn’t actually matter. Luz was here, that’s what mattered. 

It was one of those things she did, she always seemed to just  _ be  _ there. She was unlike any person Amity had ever met. Her life had changed so much since Luz forced her way into it through boundless kindness and an annoyingly positive attitude. 

Maybe that’s why she’d thought this might change, too. But no, her phone sat silently among the contents of her bag. And she sat silently on the steps. Because some things never changed, no matter how hard you tried or hoped they would. No matter how long you waited for someone who would never come. 

“It’s getting cold,” Luz spoke softly from beside her. 

So she elected to focus on the person who  _ was _ here, instead. 

“I, uh, I think I have a jacket in my bag.” Amity found her voice. It was always difficult to do that around Luz, but not for the same reason as usual this time. 

“No, I like the cold. It’s always so hot here. Guess that’s why they call it the  _ Boiling  _ Isles.”

“They actually call it that because the ocean burns people to death.”

“...oh.” A pause. “I knew there must’ve been a reason Eda could afford a house so close to the beach.”

“I’m guessing that’s a good thing in the human realm?”

“What, the beach? Definitely.” Luz looked straight up at the sky. “When I go back, I’ll take you and Willow and Gus and Eda and King with me, and we can all go to the beach.”

“You think your mom would be mad if you came home with five other people?”

“She’d never find out,” Luz responded with a smirk, like it was second nature.

“How come?”

“Uh, I dunno, magic?”

She was such a dork. Amity found herself smiling. Weird. The sun was setting and it was getting colder by the second and the courtyard was nearly empty and she was smiling. She was stranded on the steps in front of the school and nobody was coming to get her and she was smiling. She’d just lost all hope and all faith in a reply that would never come, and a person who would never give it, and Luz had made her smile. 

How could she do that?  _ Why  _ could she do that? 

Why was it that Luz could walk up with messy hair and a school uniform ripped and worn along every edge (seriously, what did she get  _ into  _ at school every day?) and bring the entire world with her? 

Amity didn’t know the answer and it scared her. It scared her so much that it struck her as something incredible.

For years, she figured that her life would stay the same. It would simply continue on the course that everyone had already set in front of her. She would work to reach the goals that were already set perfectly in place for her to reach. She pretended to care about her future the way she assumed every other kid her age pretended to care about theirs. 

Only now that Luz had provided both a literal and metaphorical glimpse into another world, did she realize how miserable she’d been. 

Luz was exciting in every place that Amity was another dull, boring cog in the system. A system Luz seemed hell-bent on dismantling after only a few weeks of living under it. Amity admired her so much for that. She hadn’t lied when she’d called her brave. Luz was braver and kinder and smarter than she ever would be. It shouldn’t have taken a genius or even stuck-up top student to see that earlier. 

Amity looked at her. She did that too much, probably. She couldn’t help it. Luz’s eyes were closed against the setting sun. She was leaning back, elbows braced against the stair behind her. Her face rested so that the golden-orange light outlined her features. 

Amity was scared of the changes Luz instilled in her and in everything she thought she ever knew. That was certain. But she was even more scared of losing her. Of going back to being a cog in the machine, waiting for a reply to the hopes she’d never speak aloud or acknowledge were more than fleeting moments of insecurity. 

“Hey, Luz?”

Luz opened one of her eyes and looked over. “Yeah? What is it?” Her voice was soft with a mixture of tiredness and concern. 

“It’s, um, it’s just- we’re friends, aren’t we?”

Luz sat up, suddenly alert. “Of course we’re friends! Unless- do you- is something wrong? Are we not?”

“No, we are! I, uh, just wanted to ask… “ Amity took a deep breath. She looked at a rough edge in the stone near her feet. “It’s kind of dumb, but, would we still be friends? E-even if I did something bad? Or like, really really stupid?”

The world went silent for one terrifying second. 

“Amity, if you had to give up on being friends every time the other person did something stupid, we wouldn’t be sitting here talking right now.”

“R-right.”

“And what kind of question is that, anyways? I do way more stupid stuff than you!”

Amity breathed a laugh. “Yeah, you do.”

“Well you don’t have to be so mean about it,” Luz grumbled, but she was smiling. 

Amity smiled back, but it quickly dissolved into nervousness. 

“Ok, well, if we’re really friends,” she started, absentmindedly fumbling with the buckle on her bag. “I want you to know that I care about you. A lot. So don’t do any stupid stuff that’ll get you killed, alright?” She dug her nails into her palms so her hands would stop shaking. 

“Aw, Amity, that’s so sweet!” Luz reached over and squeezed Amity’s shaking hand in her own. “I care about you, too. And don’t worry, I’m trying not to die all the time now. I’ve gotten pretty good at it.”

Amity stared at their intertwined fingers. The words and gestures surrounded her like a warm blanket. In retrospect, it was foolish to think that Luz would ever intentionally leave her. Amity had tried getting rid of her before, and that hadn’t worked out in her favor. 

She was still scared, scared of what came next, but it would be okay. Both of them would be okay, even if it was just for right now. 

***

They stayed there, talking. Talking about nothing and everything for what felt like hours and seconds all at the same time. Amity didn’t remember. She was too worn out and weary for remembering, and Luz kept their hands loosely clasped together the whole time, so it wasn’t Amity’s fault for not being completely focused. 

(It was. It was her fault. It always had been. But she was too tired to think about it, and that was a good enough excuse to ignore it.)

The sun finally dipped down to touch the horizon. Shadows grew until the courtyard was a few shades greyer and darker than it had been minutes (hours? seconds?) prior. They were alone. Another question, one that she really didn’t want to ask, but should, bubbled to the surface of Amity’s mind. 

“...Luz, is anyone coming to pick you up? We’ve been here a while.”

“Eda usually does, and she’s always sorta late, but…” Luz’s eyebrows furrowed slightly. “I should probably call her, now that you mention it.”

Amity awkwardly pulled her hand away from Luz’s as Luz went to grab her phone from her pocket. She was going to start messing with her bag again or something dumb like that, but Luz reached over and laced their fingers back together while dialing Eda’s number with one hand. Like she didn’t even realize she was doing it. 

Amity was planning to tune out their conversation anyway, so she wouldn’t have to remind herself of who was supposed to be picking  _ her  _ up, but  _ that _ sure made it a lot easier not to think about it. Or think at all, period. 

Whatever they said while Amity was zoned out, the conversation was short. Luz took the phone from her ear after a minute, pressed the red ‘end call’ button, and sighed. 

“She said she’s coming soon.”

“That’s good.” Amity selfishly wished she wouldn’t. 

Luz hummed an acknowledgement. She moved closer to Amity, so that their shoulders touched. They were still holding hands. Amity suddenly found it really hard to breathe. 

Silence stretched out around them. The only sounds came from the forest. A strange animal-esque call here and there, and the wind rustling through the leaves. 

Amity felt Luz shiver against her side. 

“I-” Amity started, quietly, but the words died in her throat. She tried again. “I still have that jacket with me, if you want it.”

“... Maybe.”

She pulled it out and dropped it in Luz’s general vicinity, too flustered to look at her. When she recovered enough for a glance, she found Luz staring at it sitting crumpled on her lap.

“Y-you can put it on, you know.”

“I know. But I don’t want you to be cold, is all.”

“I never said  _ I _ was-”

“Here we go!” Luz leaned in and threw the jacket across both their shoulders, pressing further into Amity’s side so it would fit. Amity conveniently neglected to mention that the jacket now did basically nothing in terms of keeping them warm. It wasn’t important. Besides, Amity’s face was more than warm enough to make up for it. 

Two tiny pinpricks of light, mistakable for stars had it been just a little later, appeared in the distance above the woods. Rapidly, they grew larger and brighter until Amity had to squint her eyes against them. She heard Eda’s voice and the click of her heels against the stone steps before she saw her. 

“Sorry about that, kid.” Amity pried open her eyes and saw Eda climbing the stairs toward them. There were twigs and leaves caught in her hair. “I got caught up with, uh, stuff.” Eda eyed the two of them huddled together and quirked an eyebrow, just slightly. 

“Criminal stuff?” Luz asked excitedly. The jacket slid off their shoulders, but she didn’t notice. 

“Hey, keep it down in front of little miss Emperor's Coven over here.” Eda jerked a thumb in Amity’s direction. Amity blushed and looked away. 

“Wh- I was just kidding!” Eda said, incredulous. “You save my kid from a giant monster, and you think I’m still mad at you for almost killing her  _ one  _ time? Dang, if I had to count how many times  _ I  _ almost killed Luz… ” There was a laugh underneath her words.

Eda wasn’t mad at her? That was… good to know. Amity had assumed she was. 

“Amity’s saved me from like four giant monsters, actually.” Luz didn’t even mention the part about dying at the hands of her mentor. 

“Geez, kid, we gotta teach you some self-defense spells or something.” Eda’s eyes flitted over to the woods, in the direction of the Owl House. “But, uh, yeah, crime stuff. I’ll tell you about it when we get home.” 

Luz nodded. Then she did that  _ thing  _ she did all the time. The one where she wrapped her arms around Amity and just… stayed there, for a few seconds. Amity had no idea what it was, but it didn’t feel particularly  _ bad _ , so she found it was easier to just let it happen. Eda shot her a sympathetic look. 

Luz pulled back. She pushed herself up. “You need a ride home, Amity?”

She probably did. Walking through the woods this late was dangerous. But so was pulling up to Blight manor with a wanted criminal and a human. 

“No, that’s okay.”

Nobody pressed her any further. 

“Well, bye then! See you tomorrow!”

“We don’t have school tomorrow.” 

“I know! But we have our study date, remember?”

_ Why’d she have to say it like that?  _ Amity clutched the hem of her uniform. She did remember offhandedly mentioning something about Saturday when Luz had asked her about it after class a few days ago. 

“R-right. See you then.”

Luz waved and followed Eda down the stairs. As they flew away, Amity watched the glow of the staff’s eyes until it melted into darkness against the night sky. 

She should start walking home. She should’ve already started walking home a long time ago. She stood up and stuffed the forgotten jacket back into her bag on top of her phone, hiding it from view. She briefly glimpsed the screen. No new messages. But that was fine. Amity had something better. 

She started her walk. It was dark, and cold wind bristled against Amity’s skin, but she hardly felt it underneath the warmth in her chest, burning like a tiny ball of light. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Maybe I projected a little too much with this one. And I just realized this chapter is almost double the length of the last two, and the next one looks like it's going to be even longer so.... whoops......


	4. The One Where Luz Brings Her Home Anyways

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> alt. title: The One Where Luz's Ideal Hug Lasts Three Hours
> 
> aaaaaaaa I can't believe I actually finished this I thought I'd lose motivation after like half a chapter. You guys' kudos and comments have meant the world to me and to be honest I'm a little sad this is the last one. Thank you all so much for reading. 
> 
> Oh and as a warning there is a single swear word in this chapter because I wrote it and was going to replace it later but nothing else fit the way I wanted it to.

To describe the Boiling Isles as “weird” would not only have been a gross understatement, it would’ve surprised absolutely no-one. The residents were well aware, but they’d learned to live with weirdness, and so they didn’t seem to mind. As for Luz, she and the weirdness had a love-hate relationship. She mostly loved it, because nobody here could berate her for existing differently from them. They couldn’t call her weird when they were all a thousand times weirder. And yet she hated it, because she hadn’t quite adapted to it yet, and things like the etiquette of entering a secret room concealed behind a magic bookcase in a magic library fell under a particular brand of weirdness she’d never considered before. 

She stared at the spines of the books. Was she supposed to knock? If so, then on what? The books? Most of them were just regular books, though, right? Would it be stupid to knock on the spines of regular old (magic) books? Maybe she should just start pulling each of them out individually until she got to the one that opened the door. Then she could pretend like she’d known which one it was the whole time once she found it. 

Luz wished she had Amity’s phone number, so she could just call to let her know she was here, or ask which book opened the door. But Luz wasn’t sure if Amity even  _ had  _ a phone number. Another weird thing,  nobody had phone numbers here. The only reason she could call Eda was because Hooty had called her from the house once (somehow, she didn’t want to know) and when she clicked on his name under recent calls, Eda would usually just pick up instead. 

She checked the time. 12:02 pm. She was going to be late. She already was, technically. She grumbled in the back of her throat. Amity was all punctual and stuff,  _ she _ was probably already inside waiting for Luz. Stupid cool secret entrance. Now was as good a time as any to start pulling on random books. She tried the top left first. Nothing. Next, one in the center. Still nothing. She grabbed-

“Luz, what are you doing?”

Luz whirled around, book in hand. That apparently hadn’t been the one, either. 

“Oh, hey Amity!” It struck Luz as odd that Amity would be even the slightest bit late for something, but she brushed it off, content enough to add it to her newly formed mental list of weird things instead of bringing it up. “Uh, just doing some reading. For studying.”

“This is the romance section.”

Luz looked down at the book in her hands. It most certainly was. She considered herself a fan of the genre, but this cover art was something else. She shoved it back on the shelf. 

“You don’t know, I could be studying romance.” Luz raised her hands in a shrug.

Amity raised an eyebrow in turn. “Then how come you’re so bad at it?” She half-mumbled, walking past Luz and reached toward a book near the upper right corner. 

“Me? Bad at romance? Please, Amity. Somebody’s bound to fall for me any day now, just you wait.” Luz posed dramatically, placing a hand underneath her chin. 

“I’ll bet.” Amity’s voice was heavy with an unidentifiable emotion. She glanced around and, finding nobody watching them, pulled on the book to open the door. It gave way noiselessly. 

The little room felt a few degrees warmer than the outside, but not enough to be uncomfortable. It was just as cozy as Luz remembered it. More so than last time, because she wasn’t under any pressure to reveal Amity’s darkest secrets to the entire school. And there were no demons. 

Amity drew a circle in the air, igniting the candle on her desk with a minuscule pink flame. Luz didn’t see why they needed the extra light, since the ceiling was already dotted with cute little glowing planets and stars. She pulled the door closed behind them. 

Shelves lined every wall, filled edge to edge with books. (Was it against the rules to take so many from the rest of the library?) Most were labelled “fantasy” with the tags the library taped to the covers. Luz wondered what constituted a fantasy novel in the Boiling Isles. 

“Thought you’d have more textbooks,” she mused, eyeing the Azura series still sitting in its place of honor. 

“No, I keep those at home.” Amity busied herself rearranging some things on the desk, back turned. She grabbed a couple stray pieces of pink paper and shoved them in her pocket. 

For a couple of seconds, both of them stood there unmoving and unsure of what to do. Luz swung her arms back and forth. 

“So,” she said, bringing her hands together with a clap in front of her. “You’ve done this whole ‘studying together’ thing before, right?”

“Um, no, not really.”

“Wait, seriously? Aren’t you like, an entire prodigy?”

“My-” Amity’s eyes darted to the floor. A crease formed between her eyebrows. “My parents always told me my success wasn’t really ‘mine’ if I had to rely on other people.”

Oh. 

“Harsh.”

Amity managed a weak smile. She kicked her foot against the rug, obviously ready to change the subject. 

“Well then this is awkward.” Luz fidgeted with a lock of hair. “I kinda assumed you knew how to do this.”

“What? You mean you don’t? You’re the one who suggested it!” Luz couldn’t tell if Amity was annoyed or relieved. Both, maybe. 

“Haha, yeah…” She looked away. “Teachers in the human world always say studying with other people is more helpful, but they never showed us how.”  _ And I didn’t have any friends to try it with.  _ She didn’t say that part.

“Human school sounds terrible.”

“Ugh, you don’t even know.” Luz flopped down into a beanbag chair to emphasize her point. Ow. She hid her pained expression, instead patting the spot next to her. “Think we can figure this out together, then?”

Amity sat down. “We can try.”

“That’s the spirit!” Luz reached into her bag and pulled out her notes with a flourish. “We got this!”

As it turned out, they did indeed have it. Perhaps a little  _ too _ well. Luz stared in awe as Amity quoted the last bullet point on her note sheet, word for word. For the second time. They’d started reviewing maybe ten minutes ago. 

“That’s-” Luz scanned the pages again to make sure. “That’s pretty much the entire unit. You, uh, already know all of this.”

Amity tucked a nonexistent piece of hair behind her ear. “...I guess I do.” She wrung her hands. Her slightly embarrassed expression contorted into one of guilt. She sighed. “Luz, I’m sorry for making you come all the way out here. I should’ve known I could handle it by myself, like I always-”

“No.” Luz held out a finger to cut her off. “No way am I letting you take the blame! I’m the one who pressured you into coming!” 

“I didn’t have to agree! I could’ve just said no.” Amity crossed her arms. “But I let all that cute stuff you said about wanting to spend time with me get to my head and-” She stopped and her eyes widened like she’d realized she’d made a mistake. 

“That’s not your fault.” If anything, it was Luz’s. She hugged her knees to her chest. But felt a smile tug at her lips for a split second as Amity’s words fully sunk in. “And just so you know, I meant it, when I said that.” 

“O-oh.” Amity blinked her still-wide eyes a couple times. It looked like she was frozen in place. 

Luz elbowed her. “You good, Blight?”

More blinking. She eventually nodded. “I-I mean, if that’s what you want.” Her face grew redder with every word. “But there’s not much to do around here.”

“Are you kidding? You’ve got like a million books!”

“I’ve read them all already.”

“You’ve never read them with me.” Luz grinned and raised her eyebrows. “And are you gonna tell me you remember exactly what happens in every single one?”

Amity twisted the hem of her dress between her fingers. “Well, no.” 

“And you can say whether they were good or not.” Luz plucked a purple book with gold accents from the shelf behind them. “What about this one?” She asked, presenting it to Amity.

Amity surveyed the cover. “That one’s pretty bad, actually.”

“Perfect!” Luz cracked it open and set it in between the two of them. The pages were crisp, barely worn. “That means we get to make fun of it together,” She explained to a confused Amity. 

Amity rolled her eyes, but she was smiling. “You’re so weird, Luz.”

Luz beamed. “I try.”

She flipped the page and started reading.

***

“-doesn’t make any sense! If they were supposed to be love interests, why wouldn’t the author set it up from the beginning? It seems so crammed in at the last minute, along with the explanation for the entire magic system, which, by the way, is also terrible. Really, you people literally live in a world of magic and they couldn’t come up with anything better? What kind of-” 

Luz paused mid-rant as her gaze fell on her friend. 

Amity appeared to be asleep. Her eyelashes lay delicately against her cheeks, dark as night against her pale complexion. Her head rested on Luz’s shoulder, which Luz had noticed a few minutes ago, but hadn’t completely registered, too caught up in bashing a poorly-written romantic subplot. She gulped, unsure of what to do. She didn’t want to wake her up, but-

Amity shifted a little in her apparent sleep. A feeling like nervousness bloomed in the pit of Luz’s stomach. (Why was she  _ nervous _ ? Where had that come from?) She put down the book, not bothering to mark her place, and gently prodded her friend's arm. Amity woke with a start.

“Hm?” She rubbed her eyes.

“You fell asleep. Was I that boring?”

“No, your voice is just-” She yawned. “-nice to listen to, I guess.”

Luz thought Amity was probably delirious or something, because that didn’t sound right. She’d been told that her voice was annoying too many times to count. 

Amity cleared her throat. “So, did I miss much?”

“Nah, just me ranting about this dumb book.” 

Amity nodded sagely. “I told you it was bad.”

Luz smiled a bit, but her mind was somewhere else. 

“Did you get enough sleep last night, Amity?” 

A few muffled sounds from the library made their way through the door and hung in the air. Amity’s expression changed rapidly from surprise to confusion to something almost like fear. Luz drew back an inch or so. She didn’t want to upset her. 

“Not… really,” she finally replied. “I got home late. I had to walk.” 

“You couldn’t call anyone to pick you up?”

Amity grimaced. She seemed to curl in on herself. “I did.” The words had a sharpness to them that must’ve come from somewhere Luz didn’t recognize.

“I don’t understand. I asked if you needed a ride, didn’t I? It wasn’t a big deal, we could’ve-”

“No, it’s- first of all, stop blaming yourself, you do that too much. And second-” Amity’s mouth twisted into a scowl. “Secondly, no, you couldn’t have. Eda’s an enemy of the state, remember? And you’re, uh, you.” She scanned Luz up and down. “A human, that is.” 

“So?”

“So my parents kind of want the both of you dead.”

“Oh.” Luz should’ve known. Most people did. And from what she’d seen of Amity’s parents… Still, she tried for reassurance. “I’m sure that’s an exaggeration.”

Amity scoffed. “That’s not what they make it sound like.”

Somebody shuffled through the books on the other side of the door. The volumes made hollow sounds against the wood as they slid in and out of place. Both girls were silent until the person left, footsteps receding into nothingness.

“My mom yelled at me, when I came home last night.” Amity shut her eyes, voice low. “I don’t even remember what she was yelling about. You learn to stop caring. I think she was mad at me for being late.” 

Luz knew Amity’s parents were awful. She felt bad for not being able to do anything about it. Amity would’ve told her not to. There was nothing she  _ could _ do except listen. 

“But I _wouldn’t_ have been late if she picked me up, like she _said_ she would.” Her words took on that shaky, biting quality that Luz had learned to associate with anger. It was usually cute, or funny, but now it was just sad. “Oh, but her job is just _so_ important, and I should’ve been _responsible_ enough to get home without her, because ‘a Blight is smart enough to prepare for every possible outcome.’” Amity forced a laugh without any humor. All of her fiery sarcasm seemed to drain along with it. “Never prepared for this one. I probably would’ve considered it too pathetic for the family name.”

She looked back at Luz. Her eyes shined with unfallen tears. 

Luz didn’t see Amity sad often, but it didn’t take much for her to decide it might be one of the worst things on two worlds.

“I’m sorry, Luz. You don’t want to listen to this, I know. I shouldn’t be-”

Luz cut her off by pulling her into a hug. It was the best she could do, for now. Amity cautiously hugged her back. 

“Wh-what are you doing?”

Oh, right. “I’m hugging you.” Luz forgot they didn’t have those here. 

“I don’t know what that is.” As Amity said it, she buried her face further into the crook of Luz’s neck and curled her fingers into the fabric of her hoodie. 

And Luz held her. Held her because she knew there was nothing she could do or say to undo what had been hammered into her head for her whole life. No grand gesture or heartfelt reassurance could convince her that she was worth it. Luz knew the feeling. It’d taken a trip to another dimension to see herself as more than a “disruption to fellow classmates.” Amity would realize her worth. And Luz would be there until she did. 

Minutes passed. Amity’s breathing slowed and her grip on Luz’s shirt loosened. Geez, she really hadn’t gotten enough sleep. Luz shifted to lean against the bookcase wall, careful not to wake her. It wasn’t comfortable, the shelves dug into her back and her leg was folded at an odd angle beneath her, but she could deal. She’d been sleeping on the floor for a few weeks now, anyway. 

Her eyelids fluttered closed. She let her mind wander, pointedly ignoring another odd bout of nervousness. 

For the second time that day, Amity woke up in a place she had no memory of falling asleep in. And she woke up sad. Not the kind of overwhelming sadness that makes you cry (though she felt like she had), but the kind that’s always there and you’re sometimes just reminded of it. The kind you learn to live with. 

_ Edgy _ , she thought to herself. She was a little out of it. 

Still groggy, the memories trickled back. Of the library and being too good at studying and that god awful book and- oh, yikes. She winced, closing her eyes tighter like that would make the memory go away. She’d lost it for a while there, hadn’t she? A voice in her head chastised her for showing weakness. 

_ You know Luz hates you now, right?  _ it said. Amity knew she was being dramatic, but she couldn’t help finding some truth in the statement. Venting about her mommy issues and then crying in front of the girl she liked was probably not a good look. It wasn’t a stretch to consider that Luz thought less of her, at the very least. Luz was-

Luz was hugging her right now, actually.

A final memory flooded back at the same time she discerned the feeling of an arm across her back. Somebody was playing with her hair. 

(She knew who, of course, but if she thought about it, her organs might collapse in on themselves.)

She didn’t want to get up. The sudden influx of warmth and reassurance made her light-headed with happiness. She relished in the feeling for a long time. Way too long for somebody of her name and status. She didn’t care. She’d hate herself for thinking it, later, but for now it didn’t matter. 

It was a while before Amity dared to move, and she only did because she was afraid of how much time had passed. Whether or not she cared about name and status, her parents definitely did. Coming home late twice in a row would not be wise. She steeled herself, pulling away from the easy embrace. 

“You’re awake.” Luz looked stunned at the idea. She paused, hand resting at the base of Amity’s neck. 

“Mnh. Sure am. Don’t look so shocked.” 

“... Sorry.” Her expression melted back into a soft smile. Affection sparkled in her eyes. She tucked a stray piece of Amity’s hair behind her ear and Amity wondered if love was too strong a word to describe what she felt. Probably. She wondered if she cared or not. 

Without thinking, she fell back against Luz, dizzy from contentment. And maybe also the fact she’d just woken up. 

“Hey, don’t go falling asleep on me again. Ha, literally.”

“Mhm.” Amity stifled a yawn. “How long was I out?”

Luz checked her phone. “Almost three hours.”

“What?” Amity was back up in seconds. “I-I need to leave,  _ now _ .”

“Woah, hey, calm down.” Luz placed a hand on Amity’s cheek. Which didn’t calm her down in the slightest, but she did stop moving (if only from shock). “I called Eda about an hour ago. She’s waiting outside. She can drive you.” 

Amity vaguely wondered what the word ‘drive’ meant. “But-”

“Please don’t argue.” 

Amity had figured as much. Damn her and her oversharing. “...Okay. We can go,” she mumbled. 

“Thank you.” Luz paused. “I, uh, can’t really move right now, though. You’re kinda sitting on my leg.”

“R-right, sorry.” Amity scrambled into a standing position, almost slipping on the carpet. Smooth. She pulled on Luz’s arms to help her up. 

“Huh, can’t feel my legs,” Luz casually mentioned. Shrugging it off, she held out a hand. Amity took it with a surprising lack of panicked deliberation. A welcome change. She led them out into the rest of the building, closing the hidden door behind them. Among hundreds of other bookshelves, it might as well have never existed. 

The library’s tall windows cast an ethereal silver light across the interior. The places it didn’t reach remained shrouded in blue-toned shadow. A sharp contrast to the warm yellow light of their room. (Amity didn’t know when it had become  _ their  _ room instead of just hers, but she wasn’t complaining.)

Sure enough, they found Eda reclining on a table, flipping through a book at a pace way too fast for her to actually be reading anything. She saw them and moved to stand, tossing the book on the floor.

“Eda!” Luz scolded.

“What, you’re not even gonna say hi?”

Luz gave her a look. 

“Ugh,  _ fine _ .” She picked up the book and neatly placed it back on the shelf. 

“Thank you.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Eda made a show of crossing her arms and rolling her eyes. “So, how was you two’s da-”

“Hey, so, Eda,” Amity immediately changed the subject. “Um, how did you get in? The library’s closed.” She disentangled her hand from Luz’s in hopes that Eda would be kind enough not to comment on it. Thankfully, she dropped it with nothing more than a raised eyebrow. 

“I have my ways.”

“She broke a window.” Luz pulled up a picture on her phone of the shattered glass remains of a window on the library’s floor. Sent by Eda alongside a message reading  _ Not even a magic forcefield on the windows. And you’re telling me they expect people  _ not _ to break in? _

“Wh- hey! I cleaned it up!” She gestured to a nearby, and for the most part intact, window. A small crack along one of the small panes was the only indication it had ever been broken. “Now if you’re done pestering me about property damage, can we get home already? I left King in charge, and I don’t want whatever army he’s raised this time to get too out of control.”

Luz nodded. Amity followed suit. Eda retrieved her staff from atop one of the couches and got on.

“You live in that one fancy-ass mansion, right miss protégée?”

Amity nodded again, though she did not appreciate the nickname. “It’s best if you drop me off a few blocks away though. I don’t want you to be around when my parents find out I…” She trailed off, but the message was clear. 

“Who said they’d find out?” Eda responded with a smirk, like it was second nature.

Amity could see where Luz got it from. It was reassuring, in an odd way. She let Luz guide her to the staff with a hand around her wrist. 

***

Eda’s flying seemed just about as illegal as everything else she did. They broke at least four different speed limits. Amity almost fell off every time they stopped or turned or did anything, really. She found herself holding onto Luz for dear life. 

“We’re here,” Luz whispered after another sudden stop. She did her best to tap Amity’s shoulder. “You said this one’s yours, right?”

Amity pried open an eye. It was her bedroom window, alright. They hovered next to it. “Yeah, this is it.”

“Good, a- Eda! No!” Luz swatted her mentor’s hand away before she could complete the spell circle. “You’ve already destroyed enough windows for one night.”

“Aw, you’re no fun.”

Amity took a deep breath and removed one arm from around Luz to cast a spell of her own. The window unlocked with a clicking sound. She pulled it open and climbed in, using Luz’s shoulder as support. She let go once she was safely inside. Her sad, empty room was unbearable to look at. All in perfect order, with textbooks and posters for things she’d never care about. No room for anything or anybody else. 

She shivered, leaning back out of the open window. Cold wind whipped her hair sideways. Somehow, it was more comfortable. 

“Well, I guess this is goodbye,” she said. “I had fun today. Even if we didn’t do any studying.” 

“Don’t be so dramatic, Amity. We’ll see each other at school on Monday.” Luz chuckled. “But, yeah, it was fun. See? I told you! It’s all about the quality time, studying is for nerds.”

“Nerds who pay attention in class and get good grades and analyze books for fun?”

“Don’t act like you’re any better than me.”

Amity was far,  _ far _ worse and she knew it. 

“Kid! You done yet?” Eda yelled. 

Luz sighed. “Yeah, I think so," she called back. "See you soon, okay?”

“Definitely.” Amity willed herself to believe the next day wouldn’t feel like an eternity. 

Luz waved and came dangerously close to falling as Eda’s staff rocketed off into oblivion. What an idiot. Amity closed the window slowly, so she could pretend it had only been a few seconds since Luz had left. 

But she’d be back. Amity would be stuck with her for quite a while, she realized.

And was that Luz’s fault? For being persistent and strong-willed enough to put up with her? Or was it Amity’s fault? For letting herself get attached, falling too hard too quickly? 

Amity would likely never know. 

She could live with not knowing, for once. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I say "thank you" wayyy too much but thanks again for reading. I'm really amazed that so many people liked this. Hope the last chapter lives up to expectations. <3


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